


Bright Lights, Big City

by inknpaint



Category: Black Widow - Fandom, Marvel 616, Winter Soldier - Fandom, buckynat - Fandom, winterwidow - Fandom
Genre: F/M, NSFW
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-23
Updated: 2017-03-23
Packaged: 2018-10-09 18:47:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10418718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inknpaint/pseuds/inknpaint
Summary: After James died as Captain America, the Winter Soldier and Black Widow have been hard at work. The Zephyr Project was a secret the Red Room had buried deep within James's head, and uncovering the secrets of it wasn't going to be easy. Their recent lead has lead them straight to the Los Angeles County Art Museum. Between Breathing lights and the Rain Room, a run in with a few HYDRA agents turns out to be a little more than they had expected.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [FY BuckyNat 2017 Mini Bang](http://fuckyeahbuckynatasha.tumblr.com/tagged/BuckyNat-Mini-Bang) with art by [Yvette](https://dreaminglikeeames.tumblr.com/)

“I swear, if you move one more time…”

“What, Natalia? What are you gonna do?” James said, shifting his position on the roof for the hundredth time.

This was thirty-two of their surveillance on Collin Marks. Based on the mission dossier and the intelligence they had gathered through their own observations, the middle-aged Army officer had crossed HYDRA’s radar when he borrowed money from one of their associates to support his gambling habit three years ago. And now, over the past year, the terror organization had come to collect— not money but information. The specific information was what had initially peaked their interest: the Zephyr project. Ever since the memories had been forced out of James’s mind, the two of them had been tracking down every piece of information they could find, and Marks was some of the most tangible evidence they had found yet.

James sighed audibly as he tuned the transmitter for the bugs they had planted in their target's hotel room.

“Tell me how you really feel, James?” Natasha said, irritation clear in her voice as she lowered her binoculars to give him a look.

“Don't act like you're not bored out if your mind too.”

“I'm not, but I'm also not making a series of noises to voice my displeasure. Good spies are supposed to stay quiet and not blow their cover.”

“Well...I guess I'm just an okay spy then.”

“What?”

“You said good spies are supposed to be—”

“Shut up, James. He's picking up the—”

James put his headphones on and hit record to pick up the conversion Marks was about to have.

“Hello…” the  answered the phone. 

“Tonight. Governor's Ball. You know what we require.” The voice was heavily distorted, and while they knew it was HYDRA, it would be better if they could narrow down who their mark was meeting with.

“Sitwell, I'm sending you the recording to decode and send through voice recognition.”

“I'll see what I can do.”

“If anyone can give us an idea as to who was calling Marks, I know it's you, Jasper,” Natasha spoke into her comm, as she helped James pack up their equipment.

“Your flattery will get you nowhere, Romanoff.”

“Jasper...we only flatter you because you deserve our love and affection,” James said.

“We love you!” Natasha added sweetly.

“...y-you two are literally the worst…” Jasper replied, trying to hide how flustered the pair was making him. “Just...finish your house cleaning and report back when you're ready for your transportation to the gala.”

“No, 'I love you,’ back?” Bucky said, mocking offence. 

“Good-bye Barnes,” Jasper signed-off.

“Oh my god...how much candy did you eat?!” Natasha said, a handful of wrappers in her hands as she paused their cleaning.

“Twizlers, Snickers bar, gummy bears…I had a bag of chips at some point, but that's not candy…” James replied as he wrapped up the electrical cords for the recording equipment.

“Fatass,” she said playfully, tossing his empty bag of chips at him.

“Did you expect me to just starve?”

“Don't be so dramatic. We pack meals every time we do surveillance.”

“Because I insist on it! I swear you would have us survive on c-rations if I didn't—”

“Complain like a bitch?” Natasha smirked, rising an eyebrow as a rye smile formed on her lips.

“This isn't the War, Natalia,” he said, frustration in his voice as he picked up their trash.

“I mean…we  _ are _ working against HYDRA.”

“Must you always compare everything I do to fighting Nazis?”

“You're the one that brought it up, soldier boy,” she said, a smirk on her face.

In spite of their playful banter, the two moved out quickly—leaving no traces of their presence behind. All part of the job. They wait and wait, and they finish their missions, without fail. That's why SHIELD sends them on missions that would normally require a team of agents, backup and money. They only require one person as their backup, and their expenses are far less than the cost of cleaning up collateral damage. A win-win in the mind of Maria Hill.

Once they were back in their hotel room, it was time to strip out of their uniforms and get ready for the party.

“James.”

“Naaat…” Bucky whined, being denied entry to the shower.

“We only have three hours to make sure everything is ready...because someone insisted on grabbing lunch before we went back up to our room.”

“I promise I'll keep my hands to myself.” 

“That's a promise I know you can't keep.” She shook her head as the soldier stepped inside the shower, a slight giggle leaving her lips as he kissed her neck. “See, I told you wouldn't be able to keep your hands to your—”

“Natalia, who said that you could tell me what to do?” he asked in a low growl as his cybernetic hand traveled down her thighs.

He wasted no time with soft foreplay, pushing two fingers inside of her. The cool touch made her whine as she pushed her body against his to brace herself as his fingers started fucking her more roughly. 

When Natasha pressed herself against him, James took it as the sign to make his next move. He let his hand fall from between her thighs, eliciting a whine from the spy.  

“Someone is awful greedy considering she didn't think we had enough—,” his words cut off as she turned herself around to face him, her fingers wrapped around his cock. 

“You never know when to stop talking, Barnes.” Natasha smirked as she worked him to a full erection. 

That smirk always made him weak in the knees, but today he didn't have time to admire it. Instead, he grabbed her by the waist boosting her up against the wall and just as she started to help him, James pushed himself inside of her. Things progressed quickly from there; he could spend hours in moments like this with her. He knew deep down she was keeping track of the time. The perfectionist in her never relaxed. Natasha knew the way to push him over the edge and keep them on time. 

“Fill me up, James,” the words a low whisper into his ear as she followed it with a light nibble on his lobe. He did as he was told, pushing himself as deep as he could before releasing into her. 

A few moments later Natasha was handing James a towel before putting her hair up into one.

“I knew we would have enough time.”

She punched his arm, rolling her eyes at his mock pain.

“Really? That’s probably going to leave a bruise.”

“Awh, I’m sorry. Do you want me to kiss it?”

James flipped her off as he finished drying off.

“Check one of our phones, James. If Jasper got anything from that little bit of audio, he’ll probably have sent it by now.”

Just as she had finished her sentence their phones went off in unison, prompting the soldier to unlocked his phone. 

“‘I compiled the audiobyte with the other piece of audio Mr. Marks has received from his contact at HYDRA. Seems we just got enough to narrow down the possibilities to these three agents,’”James read the text allowed to the other, as he waited for the files to be sent.

Their phones went off once more as he received the three files. 

“Anyone we’ve seen Collin interact with?” Natasha said over the sound of her hairdryer.

“Give me a second to get the files loaded,” he yelled back, despite knowing that she probably couldn’t hear him.

The files didn’t take long to pull up: three mid-level agents—not that he had expect anything more than that. He looked over their pictures, their heights and weights and tried mentally thumb through the numerous people they had seen Marks interact with over the past month, as he began to get dressed. 

Between the man’s personal life and work, he had a pretty set schedule. He’d wake up every morning at five o’clock sharp, go for a half-hour long run, make himself a pot of coffee, play a round a Texas Hold ‘Em on his phone as the pot brewed and while he drank his cup of coffee, showered and headed to work. Nothing special. It was lunch where he changed up his routine. Throughout the month of them watching him, he’d gone out to eat more and more. Occasionally, he’d meet with— 

“James?” Natasha asked again, as she brushed out her hair.

“Y-yes?”

“There you are. How was the trip? You figure out which one of these HYDRA agents we’ve seen yet?”

“Awfully, I was reliving those hours we spent watching his boring as all hell life.”

“Awh, yes...something we’ve already discussed numerous times over the past thirty-two days,” she said, rolling her eyes. “While you were off enjoying your vacation, I was taking the time to run these faces through some simple facial recognition software to compare them to the photos we’ve taken over the past month,” she began angling her laptop towards the soldier.

“And you’ve found a match, obviously...I still—”

“Forget that this isn’t the 1940s?”

“You’re just on a roll with this today, aren’t you?”

“That’s why you keep me around, isn’t it?”

James rolled his eyes at her before taking a closer look at what she had pulled up on her computer screen.

“Hello, Ms Evelyn Fischer, I remember you.”

He minimized the window at the front, to review the file SHIELD had on her.

“This shouldn’t be too hard.”

“You know, that’s what I was thinking too, until…” Natasha took control of her laptop, clicking on one of the links in her file, “I went to look at this. It’s a medical file.”

“About what though?” James asked, not to her but in general. Nearly the entire page that had been scanned into SHIELD’s database was redacted. Almost every line was blacked out aside from mentions of her name or her condition as ‘fine.’

“I was curious too. So I dug a little more in SHIELD’S database, hacked past a few firewalls in the process and found one of Evelyn’s friends. The attached scans look exactly the same except for her name. Since they all mention their condition and keep track of things in days, I’m gonna assume they were all part of some type of…”

“Experiment?” The soldier groaned, “Great, why can’t we just get one of those super expendable agents with normal botched experiments where they’re easy to take care of and just annoying because they’re so many of them.”

“That would be too easy, James. And nothing is easy when it all circles back to the Russians.”

“Right…”

“We’re going to take care of this.”

“You can’t promise that.”

“I know...of all people you know that I know that, James. But you also know that whatever happens, we will take care of it. That’s what we do. That’s what we were trained to do.”

She wrapped her arms around him, kissing his bare chest as he kissed the top of her head.

“I love you, Natalia.”

“I know...now help me zip me into my dress before you finish getting dressed.”

 

* * *

 

With the usual amount of LA traffic, it only took fifteen minutes to get the three miles they needed to go. They pulled up to the valet, and James handed over his keys before he held his arm out for Natasha’s hand. The two had gone over the layout of the museum several times on their way from their hotel. They’d practiced their cover’s over the past week, and they knew everything I needed to know. It was just a matter of spotting Marks and Fischer.

“Name?”

“George and Laura Matthers,” James said, a smile on his lips as Natasha leaned into his side.

The girl checking them in ran her finger down the list, passing by Marks before she came to their name. 

“You’re all set. The whole museum is open for your enjoyment. The only things close are any special exhibits like the Rain Room or Light Reignfall,” she said the practiced statement with a smile on her lips as she greeted them.

“Anything you wanted to see while we’re here?” James asked.

Natasha shook her head, knowing he was serious when he asked, “No, George. We have other things we need to do tonight.”

“So we can’t even enjoy the Urban Lights?” he asked, pulling out his cellphone. “Just one picture?”

“J—George...stop—” she couldn’t help the slight giggle that escaped her as he attempted to position her for a photo. 

“Just a quick—oops!” As he stepped back to take the picture, he had backed right into the man of the hour. “Oh, I am so sorry.”

“No...it’s quite alright,” the man said, trying to move past them quickly. 

“Excuse me, sir,” Natasha piped in, “I know my husband just ran into you...but I feel like it’s fate! Would you mind snapping a quick picture of us, please?”

“Laura, don’t torture the man any further. I think being run over by me was—”

“No, no...it’s fine. I’d be more than happy to take a picture for you.”

“Well, thank you, so much,” James said, handing over his phone before taking his spot next to Natasha.

After he took the photograph and they thanked them, James took back his phone, carefully slipping a small audio pickup in the pocket of his suit jacket. The soldier looked over picture as the two of them headed into the party.

“You look gorgeous, as always.”

“You’re biased,” Natasha said, taking his phone away and putting it back into his pocket. “Time to get to work.”

The two took their time canvassing the area. Check all security of the venue, exits and entrances to compare them to the information they already had in their heads. Everything was just as it should be, so now all they could do was wait.

“So when we catch her and question her...we’re just going to toss her into the tar pits once we’re done, right?”

“You’re hysterical, George,” Natasha replied, a slight laugh leaving her lips as the stood at their high-top table together. 

“Laura.”

“I see her.”

They waited for Fischer to make contact with Collin, standing just close enough to them that their equipment could amplify their conversation for them to hear.

“I’ve told you everything I know about the Zephyrs.”

“So the United States Army is interested?”

“We’ve already discussed this,” slight frustration and panic was creeping into his tone, “Of course, we’re interested. Everyone is interested. The Winter Soldier himself trained these men. There isn’t a country or organization out there not looking to place a bid.” 

“Who, Marks? Who inside the Army is interested?” her tone was short as her hand made a move towards her gun.

The two spies could see their mark breaking down slowly—sweat starting soak into the collar of his shirt, he’d already pulled his pocket square from his pocket to dab at his forehead, and he kept shifting his weight as if he was trying to figure out where to run. 

Their window was closing quickly. Fisher was going to pull the trigger sooner rather than later if he didn’t dish out any new information soon. 

“I swear, if you are wasting my time, Marks.”

“Lieutenant Colonel Charles...that’s who told me to look into it. He’s got the final information for bidding.”

“Good boy, Collin.”

James and Natasha didn’t need to look towards each other to prompt the other into action; they just moved. From the second the finally piece of information was given to the time it took Fisher to pull out her gun and shoot, the two had already begun to move. The soldier grabbed Marks, moving him out of the way and blocking the fatal shot with his cybernetic arm; the bullet tore through the sleeve of his jacket—the metallic clash sending the stunned crowd running. 

“Who the fuck are you?” Marks said, trying to free himself from James’s grasp.

“Move him!” Natasha yelled, her hands around Fisher wrist, forcing her second shot towards the sky as an explotive left her mouth. 

The soldier ushered the lieutenant behind the bar, pulling a pair of handcuffs off his belt as he did so. 

“I figured since you were so keen to give information away about sleeper agents trained by the Winter Soldier…” James secured Marks to the bar, “You’re probably a big fan.”

He took off his jacket, revealing the number of guns he had on his person. The soldier pulled one of his Glocks from his shoulder holster, checking the gun quickly before turning off the safety. 

“Sh-shit—”

“Nice too meet you Collin. I’m a  _ big _ fan of yours as well. Selling secrets to HYDRA is probably number one in my favorite things you’ve done in your career.”

James peaked over the bar to check on the situation he’d left Natasha in. She had Fisher's gun in hand, while Fisher had scurried off to cover and her backup arrived at the scene. 

“Goddamnit,” he said under his breath as he ducked back behind the bar, turning the safety back on his pistol to holster it.  From the quick glance, Fisher had been joined by three friends: two average sized HYDRA agents and one agent built like tank. 

“James!”

He pulled his rifle of his back and jumped over the bar in one moment. The soldier threw his M16 into full auto to provide cover to Natasha as the two of them regrouped. His barrage of bullets had sent the HYDRA agents moving towards cover, providing the two spies just enough time to think over their strategy as they did the same—taking cover behind a couch. The two didn’t talk once in cover; they didn’t need to. Natasha ripped the bottom of her skirt off to shorten the length before she dropped the cartridge in the gun she’d stolen to check to number of bullets still in the magazine--fifteen more rounds. She winked at James, knowing it would drive him crazy; he shook his head, a smirk forming on his lips as he switched his gun to semi-auto.

Fights happen in ebbs and flows, quick then slow, more games of chess than a simple spray of bullets. That was the ebb; you take your time to slow things down, take a few deep breaths to lower your heart rate, all to rush back into it.

Natasha jumped over the couch and rushed towards Fisher. She was their enemy’s weakest link, and they need to find out how expendable she was. If she was truly in charge of the whole group and operation, the rest would follow to protect her. But if she meant nothing to them…

The soldier took aim at the first movement from the enemy he saw, nothing fatal till they figured out exactly who they needed to keep alive. But as soon as Natasha had made contact with Fisher, their tank took off towards them.

“Natasha!”

James didn’t hesitate to fire at the agent that was rushing towards Natasha and Fisher, but as soon as he noticed bullets weren’t slowing her down, he— 

“Fuck!” he’d gotten caught by a bullet to the arm. 

_ Goddamnit, Bucky...get your head back in this _ , he thought, engaging with the other two agents that were focused on him. 

These two didn’t matter, he didn’t need to hold back. He rushed towards them, his mind moving past the first, second, third movement his enemies had on him. First continued to fire his gun as the second had gone to reload his, but it was going to be too late for him. James blocked the shots with his cybernetic arm as he moved forward, placing his rifle on his back, as he pulled his knife from  his waistband. This wasn’t going to take long. What the majority of HYDRA’s agents lacked in skill, they made up for in numbers, but this was all they had: two scrawny men and two women that were pulling the majority of the work. James didn’t need to worry about Natasha; she would be fine, while he worked his way through these two. The soldier grabbed the barrel of the first agent’s gun in his cybernetic hand; the man firing his last shot into the soldier’s palm. James didn’t even wince with the kicked the gun, only closing his fist around it.

The first dropped his useless gun simply out of fear as the second went to aim his now reloaded gun. James kicked the gun out of the second’s hand, the gun misfiring as it hit the ground incidentally shooting the first in the foot. 

“HYDRA should really give you guys a lesson in gun safety,” James quipped, as he blocked a punch from the first by grabbing the agent’s fist with his cybernetic hand. The soldier could help the smile on his face, the fear on the man’s face slightly entraining to him as he imagined the man was imagining his fist having the same fate as his own crushed gun. “Don’t worry, I’m not a bad person.” 

James twisted the man’s arm behind his back, as the second started towards him. The soldier could see his moment in the corner of his eye as he threw his knife towards the second, the blade taking perfect aim at his chest. The second took a few stunned steps backwards before collapsing to the ground.

“Stop playing with your food, James!” Natasha yelled, as she tosesd her gun a side—clearly having run out trying to slow down the human tank that was stopping her from taking after Fisher, who was now running towards the northwest building.

The soldier through the agent in his hands to the ground, driving a boot into the man’s temple to put him out of commission. He then pulled his rifle off his back, reloading the magazine and firing at the tank to pull her attention away from Natasha.

Natasha took this as her time to move. She sprinted after Fisher pulled her own Glock from her thigh holster as she ran. 

“You know, I will say it’s an absolute honor to meet you, Black Widow,” Fischer said, her voice echoing off the museum walls as Natasha moved further into the space.

“I’d say the same, but I had no idea who you were till I read your file, Evelyn Fischer...mid-level HYDRA agent. A little less expendable than the two agents my colleague took care of, but not by much. What is it that they say…? Cut off one head, two more will take their place?” Natasha posed the question, her gun trained as she checked every room methodically. 

Fisher didn’t answer as Natasha made her way towards the Breathing Light exhibit. The square doorway that opened to the exhibit flooded the light into the dark room; Fisher silhouette harsh against the pink light behind her.

“Resilient in the face of turmoil, you know...it only takes one day of rain for grass to regrow in even the harshest of environments. I am not expendable, Black Widow.”

Natasha moved up the stairs to the exhibit, holstering her gun when she could see that Fisher didn’t have another gun on her.

“Prove it,” the spy challenged, her stance ready for whatever fight Fisher was going to give her.

* * *

 

 

The soldier was thrown across the courtyard—his rifle flung from his hand in the process. He need a new strategy; the whole rain of bullets motif he was going for clearly wasn’t her style. She was either wearing bulletproof kevlar, which at this point shouldn’t be doing her any good with the amount of lead it would have taken one, or she was made to be bulletproof; James was gonna go with a combination of the two, seeing as her armor wasn’t falling apart and there were no traces of blood on any part of her exposed skin. 

“Hey...hey…” James said, slowly pushing himself further away from her. “I think we got off on the wrong foot. I mean, I know I killed your friends, but I don’t have to kill you.”

“ _ <They were fodder, only fit for meat being sent to slaughter.> _ ”

“Oh...so you do talk...in French and full metaphor, color me imp—Shit!” James rolled out of her way as she came barrelling towards her. “< _ I’m sorry...I wasn’t trying to insinuate that—>” _

“< _ Because I look like a beast, I have the mind of one?> _ ” she drew herself up to her full height and spit, a cruel smile twisting on her face, “< _ I am the beast, but I have the intelligence to rival yours> _ , Winter Soldier.”

“Well, that’s not saying a lot,” he said, under his breath as he pushed himself up into a full sprint towards the bar.

The Soldier needed a second. James needed a second to catch his breath, to think this through. ‘ _ Get to the bar, Bucky,’  _ he thought, ‘ _ Get to the goddamn bar.’ _ But she wasn’t going to let him. She cut of his route by throwing a table, forcing him to turn and face her to block her first aimed at his head; he blocked it with his cybernetic arm, attempting to throw a knee at her stomach, but her height disallowed him. He let his body slip into muscle memory as the fight continued, letting his mind weigh out his options as they ran thin. James needed come up with something quick or Big Bertha over here was going to clobber him.

“Concussion grenade,” he said allowed as his cybernetic fist finally landed a punch that sent his assailant stumbling backwards slightly. 

James acted quickly, not allowing the tank to consider what he had said for long enough to come up with some sort of countermeasure. He scrambled back over to her fallen allies, pulling his handgun out to try and slow her down as best he could, although he knew it would only buy him a little more time. One of these men had a concussion grenade. He had seen it when they were fighting. It was just a matter of remembering which one—first or second. ‘ _ Come on…’ _

“Every legend has to die.”

“Thanks for the offer, but I’ve already tried that,” he said firing at shot at her face as he armed the grenade. 

Just as he thought, her impenetrable skin stopped the bullet, but didn’t keep her from clutching at her face. This was his opening. He landed a punch with in her stomach, forcing her to pitch forward just enough for him to tuck the grenade in the collar of her outfit. He moved as quickly as he could, but the force of the grenade still hit him, making him lose his balance as he ran to meet up with Natasha. James forced himself back to his feet quickly, continuing the sprint into the building. 

He couldn’t hear anything. His ears ringing still from the concussion grenade. There was nothing he could do about that; he’d done what he needed to get to Natasha. He couldn’t hear anything over the ringing in his ears, as he entered the dark building. With his gun still in hand, he moved slowly through, trying to find any trace of where they had gone.

“Come on, Nat...where are—?” his thought was cut off as his eyes fell on some of the only light in the building. 

The now blue light was backlighting Natasha’s fight with Fisher for a split second before the spy kicked her down the stairs. 

James trained his gun on her, as she came tumbling down to ground level. 

“ Scheisse,” she said, looking up at the soldier’s gun. 

She spit a mouthful of blood at him before she forced herself back up to her feet, a nearly primal yell issue from her as she tackled the soldier. James cursed, her yell disorienting his already punished eardrums. His cybernetic hand kept his grip on his gun, but her continued yells drilled the pain in his ears to teeth grinding levels. A crazed looked dilating Fisher pupils as she began to claw at James, forcing him to kick her off of himself.

Natasha jumped down the stairs, grabbing two stingers from her belt and throwing them at Fisher as soon as she was off of the soldier. Fisher let out a scream as the shock dropped her to her knees.

“Something is wrong with her, Natalia,” he said, speaking louder than he needed to because he’d forgotten his lack of hearing. 

“Stop yelling, James,” she said, her eyebrows furrowing slightly as she wipe a bit of her blood off her chin, “She’s not our problem anymore.”

“Nat...before you—”

“Just put down your gun, James...and call Jasper for—”

The low growl that issued from the girl on the floor froze both of them. Fisher once still body moving back to life. Her form had changed; her face almost canine as she looked towards the two of them.

“Run?” James asked, not enough attempting to hide ting of fear in it.

Natasha grabbed James’s gun, firing shots at the now werewolf chasing after them. 

“There! There’s an exit!”

The two of them moved quickly attempting to outrun the best on their trail. Fisher ran on all fours after them, despite the only physical change being in her face, but her bone structure didn’t seem to be slowing her down at all. They pushed through the door, barely making it there before her. The werewolf’s struggle with the door slowed her down enough for them to run towards Wilshire Boulevard. They needed to by themselves enough time to get a hold of Jasper. Whatever she had turned into was way outside of their area of expertise, but SHIELD would have plenty of people who wouldn’t know who to take care of this.

“Jasper,” Natasha spoke into her comm, breathlessly, “We have situation that needs contained immediately.” 

“What is it?” Jasper’s voice answered immediately. 

“Possibly a werewolf?” she answered, as the two of them made it to the street side.

“I’ll send in backup as soon as I—”

Natasha didn’t get to hear the end of the conversation as a mass tackled her through the front window of the museum. The impact sent her into the art piece against the wall, breaking several of the light bulbs. It took her a second to shake herself out of a daze and realize what had happened. The tank. She picked herself off the floor, looking briefly around the person in front of her to see if James had made it in off the street. The spy could hear the sound of his gun firing several times accompanied with loud yelps. This prompted the opponent in front of her to charge. The spy rolled out of the way, running into the Rain Room. 

“Come on, James…” she said, her eyes darting towards the door she had come through as the tank moved through the harsh flood light and rain towards her.

“Hey, Bertha,” James shouted over what he believe was the sound of the water falling, but was more than likely still the ringing in his ears, “Tanks for joining us again.”

The same twisted smile formed on her face, although he wasn’t sure if it was because she found the humor in what he had said or not; Natasha certainly didn’t think it was funny. She grabbed another pair of stingers from her belt, holding them between her fingers as she landed a kick to the tank’s spine. James knew why Natasha had brought the agent in this room. Now it was just a matter of them getting her to stand still in the rain for long enough for them to get out. He stepped out of the way of the stumbling brute, making his way towards Natasha. 

James nodded towards the flood light that was now back lighting their foe. Between the shock from Natasha’s stingers and they light, that should be enough to subdue their attacker. The two of them kicked the agent again, forcing her more off balance—making it clear to James that the concussion grenade was still doing an number on her head. One more push, that’s all they needed.

“Now!” They kicked her into the light, sprinting off the metal grate flooring as Natasha threw her stingers into the rain. 

 

* * *

 

By the time James had moved Fischer’s body off the boulevard and placed her with the other two downed HYRDA agents in the main courtyard, the SHIELD cavalry had arrived. They were already working on cleaning up the museum restoring the exhibits and removing the smell of burnt flesh. It wouldn’t take them long to make it look like nothing had ever happened, and it didn’t take too much money to pay off the right people to make sure no one knew what actually happened.

James sat with a SHIELD medic, getting the wound in his arm stitched up as Natasha walked over to him.

“Well, hello there, gorgeous.”

“Handsome…I see you’re not yelling anymore.”

“You know what Nick Fury says...nothing a little infinity formula can’t cure.”

“Are you finished stitching him up?” Natasha asked the SHIELD medic, who replied yes. “Good.”

She landed a good punch on his arm.

“Seriously?!”

“You’re the worst, James.”

“Nat…”

“That wasn’t funny.”

“I mean...it was a little funny,” he said, a crooked smile on his face.

“Don’t look at me like that…”

The soldier kissed her, smoothing her hair out of her face.

“I’m still here, Natalia.”

“I know.”


End file.
